Archaeological Evidence of Possible Transhumant Settlements at Shati Das – Shatial, District Upper Kohistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Abstract

This paper presents the discovery of the first archaeological evidence of early historic transhumant settlement at the Shati Das. The site is
located on the left bank of Indus River near the famous Shatial rock carving sites at District Upper Kohistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. The settlements are located around dried-up lakes at Shati Das. The present discovery shed lights on possible contemporary settlements of the Shatial and Shatial Das rock carving sites. The abandoned settlements are spread around 21 hectares and the structures within, based upon the construction methods and buried nature, belonged to two chronological phases. The settlement of both phases are mainly located in the south and south eastern sides of the lakes. More than 50 percent of the structures are less than 100 square metres in area, while few of the structures cover more than 500 square metres area. Almost all the structures seem to have been divided into two functional areas for animals and humans. The lack of chronometric and environmental datasets from the site hinders the accurate dating of
the site. However, the settlements were probably contemporary with the rock carving sites at Shatial and might have belonged to 1st millennium CE.